February NPD: PS4 Claims Narrow Victory Over Xbox One

Ongoing stock shortages couldn’t prevent the PlayStation 4 from claiming a second successive victory over the Xbox One in the February NPD report. While the exact figures remain under wraps, it’s thought that Sony sold around 290,000 next-gen systems to Microsoft’s still respectable 258,000 units. Ever the spin doctors, the latter’s claiming that it actually dominated the month due to its device commanding a higher price point. Fair enough.

Still, the ongoing console war is working wonders for the North American games industry as a whole, with overall hardware, software, and accessory sales increasing by 9 per cent year-over-year. In total, the market pulled in a whopping $887 million in February 2014 compared to $810 million the previous year. Hardware was up an enormous 42 per cent due to the abovementioned appliances, but “the majority of platforms” enjoyed a bump over January.

Of course, this all leaves the industry perfectly poised for a dramatic showdown in March. Microsoft will be counting on its Titanfall bundle to do the business, while Sony has bet on Sucker Punch’s superhero sequel inFAMOUS: Second Son. Both machines will also receive Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, though the series has historically always performed better on PlayStation platforms. The real wildcard is whether the Japanese giant can actually get any stock on store shelves.

As much as I love to see my console be on top, it's always better to have a good competitor who can give it a bit of a fight. It makes it more interesting and, I don't think the came world would like to only see a single console vs PC's. That'd be a boring battle, I bet. I say congrats to both platforms!

March will likely go to Xbox One, especially if MS continues to do a better job with supply. Things will get even more interesting when MS gets the price point of the X1 down to that of PS4, which is going to happen eventually.

Why does SONY PS USA & UK always mess up for? Yes SONY won last month in the USA but just about. I can see them losing the USA & UK to the X1 if they don't get their act together :-/ I know stock levels has been low but it just seems to be another excuse. Maybe the New USA PS boss can do better than Jack and maybe SONY can get some New blood into the UK team next to. I just have no faith in them after the PS3 & PSVita

@Carl-G They're doing fine. If they really are manufacturing every unit possible, then there's really not much else they can do. They're out in more territories than Xbox which has advantages and disadvantages. Even if March does go to Microsoft, then you still can't draw too many assumptions unless the number is gigantic. It needs to be sustained, after all.

These monthly figures are always interesting but its too early to make any assumptions about the long run success of either console. Im really interested to see how all 3 are going by this time next year.

World wide is the bigger picture. I've expected from the beginning that even if Sony got an early jump on MS in North America because of all the positive press PS4 was getting, the lead wouldn't last. If Sony gets its act together with regards to first party content and can be a close second in NA, that's a victory in itself and should mean good things for PS4 overall because despite being a year later to the market and despite getting outsold here by a pretty large margin last gen, PS3 still caught up to 360 at the end thanks to Europe and Japan. Get games for the Japanese market, get the first party titles out and Sony should be ok in the world wide race.

I've given up any hope Sony will ever do anything to try and make Vita a success. I've seen a fair amount of PS4 ads lately so I'm hoping at the very least PS4 marketing is better than PS3 marketing was. So far, it probably has been.

@Gamer83 I know Vita will never outsell 3DS world wide and that's fine it doesn't have too nor does it need too but is it possible for Vita to come a close second to 3DS world wide? (yes i think so) with the help of more games that appeal to more people better marketing and advertising and a few more price drops on Vita and the memory cards it's very possible and i say you never know maybe there are some big game announcements in store for Vita this year maybe Sony will push the new Vita Slim hard I'm optimistic

@BornOfEvil Sorry dude I'm just being realistic Sony is still haveing supply issues MS on the other hand is not Titanfall is getting nothing but good reviews and has a lot of strong marketing behind it it will help boost X1 sales significantly plus i think we all know that the X1 is going to have a price drop sooner rather then later

Last monthd PS4 sold almost twice what 8bone sold in US. And anyway Xbone is still getting murdered worldwide even with supply problems and titanfall .support, from sites like IGN. If suplly is ok in March should be about similar but in then end WHO CARES? Not me as long as its successfull enough

@KAPADO No, not really. It's enjoyed the biggest launch of all time. That's because they nailed the launch. The problem is, even though they're making a lot of units, it's still not enough to satisfy demand. I suppose you could argue they could have opened more factories to make even more, but I imagine at some point you reach a point where you physically can't make anymore. Also, that can backfire if you end up with millions sitting in warehouses and store shelves. Not the case here, but I imagine it's difficult to predict.

It's been easy to pick up a PS4 in the UK since after Boxing Day, picked mine up between Christmas and New Year.GAME, Argos always have stock coming and going and online retailers have had PS4's too.I'm sure within five minutes of searching you could track down a few instock online places.

I've never really understood all the weight that people give to relative console unit sales. I can see that it's something very easy for the media to quote for the layperson to celebrate but it's a really abstract and narrow metric. I find it difficult to see how these unit sales directly benefit me as a PlayStation fan. On the other hand the stats for the number of PS+ subscribers is much more useful to me as a PS4 gamer because it tells me how vibrant the multiplayer community is that I participate in.

I think the real story will be Aprils NPD numbers not march. Titanfall has a 10 day lead on Second Son plus im sure MS will group in the PC and 360 Titanfall sales wiht XB1 to make it seem like even more sales took place. While Infamous will only be out for a total of 10 days in March to Titanfalls 20. But in April we will see if one pulls ahead of the other.